Qualcomm presents the concept of hybrid AI to optimize the cost of generative AI.

At the opening keynote speech at the Korea Electronics Show (KES 2023) held on the 24th, Qualcomm Vice President Kim Sang-pyo asserted that “in the era of generative AI, hybrid AI is suitable for building systems for cost optimization,” and introduced the Hexagon Processor, a dedicated engine for generative AI, as a product to implement this.

There are currently about 3,000 generative AI applications, and the number of applications is increasing exponentially in various fields such as smart home, automotive, and healthcare. The infrastructure built to support many users maintains a centralized structure, which places a lot of load and cost on the server.

To address this, Qualcomm emphasizes on-device AI, which reduces server load by running lightweight models at the edge and shifting the load from the main frame to the device. This can be explained by the concept of load balancing, which distributes traffic across multiple servers, preventing the load from being concentrated on a single server and improving the stability and performance of the system.

Vice President Kim said, “Smartphones and PCs have the performance to process AI with about 1 billion parameters.” If we need to support generative AI services based on economies of scale, hybrid AI is inevitable. Through this, we expect to be able to reduce centralized social costs, efficiently manage communication bandwidth, and ensure privacy.

The Hexagon Processor, which Qualcomm created to implement hybrid AI, is a core component of Qualcomm's Snapdragon mobile platform. It provides various functions such as AI, graphics, image processing, and audio. Qualcomm installed the latest Hexagon Processor in the Snapdragon 8 2nd generation AP chip released in November last year.

Vice President Kim said, “Hexagon does not operate alone, but helps to efficiently manage the surrounding graphics processing units (GPUs), sensing hubs, and memory to accelerate the performance of generative AI and maximize performance.” For example, when AI performance is 100% based on the mobile platform, other solutions are at around 30-40%.

It also said, “It is very efficient, generating output faster and providing better performance when equipped with a hexagon processor, while using only one-third of the power.” Qualcomm also provides the Qualcomm AI Studio development environment, including the Qualcomm AI Stack.

Meanwhile, the Korea Electronics Show (KES 2023), the largest electronics IT exhibition in Korea hosted by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, was held at COEX from Tuesday the 24th to Friday the 27th. This exhibition had 500 companies and 1,200 booths, with approximately 60,000 participants.

In the opening keynote on the 25th, Gary Shapiro, president of the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), which hosts CES, the world's largest electronics and IT exhibition, announced tech trends for 'CES 2024' to be held early next year. President Shapiro said, "Looking back at technology 50 years ago, Korea's technological innovation at the forefront is amazing." He added, "Korea, which had the second-largest participation after the U.S. at the last CES, has 15,000 startups, and is a country that pays attention to the innovative ecosystem and knows the importance of technology in changing the world."

Next January, CES2024 will be held in Las Vegas, USA. It is expected that approximately 250 sessions will be held on the topics of AI, mobility, digital healthcare, 5G, cybersecurity, energy, NFT, design & packaging, robotics, drones, smart homes, and metaverse. Beyond KES, the high participation and history of innovation awards by domestic startups at CES are highlighting their importance as a role in bringing about changes in the existing industrial system.